Barcelona, Spain – which was supposed to be a heavyweight confrontation between the champions of Spain and Germany at the Estadi Johan Cruyff on Tuesday quickly turned into an event while Barcelona beat Bayern Munich 7-1 to score the first goal of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
It only took Alexia Potellas for four minutes to mark a brilliant first match, and from there, it was above all a descent for Bayern. Ewa Pajor and Clàudia Pina served as doubled, while Esmee Brugts and Salma Paralleluelo also marked while Barça began to catch up after last season’s final defeat against Arsenal.
Bayern briefly sought to make a first half game. Klara Bühl brought them back to the match at 3-1. Lea Schüller also saw a goal refused after the break, which would have brought the scoring to 4-2, but overall, it was an evening to forget for the German giants. The score did not flattered Barça.
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“What is disappointing is that we were not surprised today,” Bayern coach José Barcala told ESPN. “Barça is a relatively easy to analyze team; they have very specific patterns that they repeat all the time. But they exposed us at a rate and at a speed that we were not able to manage.”
The margin of victory could however slightly surprise the rest of Europe. Barça has arrived favorite, but few people could have expected what it scores so many goals against last season’s quarters, unbeaten at the start of the new campaign. Arsenal 1-0’s surprise victory over Barça in Lisbon was supposed to serve as a motivation for the rest of the hunting peloton too-instead, it seems to have added fire to Barça bellies.
Defender Irene Paredes explained before the match that she could not forget this harmful defeat – which deprived Barça, triple winner, of a hat -trick during her fifth consecutive participation in the final – but that she had exploited this disappointment to ensure that this does not happen again this season.
The hosts started hard against Bayern. They could have led in less than two minutes. Aitana Bonmatí escaped in one way or another from the grip of Georgia Stanway and his center seemed to be transformed by paralleluelo only so that Franziska Kett appears and pushes the ball behind for a corner. It didn’t matter. Barça was in song and two minutes later, Putellas, a double winner of the Ballon d’Or, returned superbly to his home from the edge of the surface.
Only an excellent stop by Ena Mahmutovic prevented Bonmatí, who herself won her third consecutive golden ball last month. On the resulting corner, Paredes headed for the bar and the Polish poacher Pajor recovered the rebound.
This performance could also be an answer to certain doubts that appeared this summer. Barça has reduced its workforce, with Fridolina Rolfö, Ingrid Engen and Jana Fernández among the departures, which raises questions about their orientation at a time when other teams spend money to recruit new expensive recruits.
However, even if they have reduced their depth, Barça has talented young people ready to assume larger roles. Dutch international Brugts, who may be behind Rölfo’s departure to Manchester United, is one of them. She played against Bayern, scoring the third goal with an intelligent finish from inside the surface.
The fact that it was in the box was in itself interesting. While he is nominally listed as a left back, when Barça has the ball, the trainer father Romeu gives her permission to enter almost as an attacking midfielder. Bayern did not know what to do with it. It is a tactical adjustment that could help Barça raise this season.
Bühl withdrew one for Bayern after the good job of Arianna Caruso, but it was not the beginning of an improbable return. Paralluelo gave three goals to Barça ahead before the break and in the second half, because it was played in advance, although entertaining.
Pajor scored the fifth goal with his second goal of the evening and after Schüller and Paredes exchanged refused goals, the best manager of the Champions League last season, Pina, came out of the bench to leave his brand.
His first goal was purely Pina, arriving on his right foot after a superb race by Vicky López and whisking the ball in the skylight. His second, the seventh in Barça, completed the rout in stoppage.
What is missing in Barça in depth, he compensates for quality. They may not have the biggest workforce, but they probably have 15 players – the starting eleven here and Pina, López, Kika Nazareth and Laia Aleixandri – who would appear in most of the teams in this competition. They are then supported by even younger players, such as Clara Serrajordi and Sydney Schertenleib, both introduced late.
Of course, OL Lyonnais, Chelsea and Arsenal are among the teams that could represent more difficult challenges later, and we must not get carried away by the first day of a new competition, but Barça wanted to highlight its candidacy during the opening evening of the new format – with the Swiss model introduced this season, like male competition with a championship phase at 18 teams.
“They are one of the three or four big favorites to win the Champions League, but we knew it from the start,” added Barcala.
